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Here we are ever in continual broils;

there in tranquility, in peace and rest;

here in the midst of unknown enemies;

there in the arms of true-approved friends;

here danger imminent doth compass us;

there friends and friendly counsel shall defend us;

therefore rejoice we are escaped the Danes,

whose greedy maws devours the Saxons' blood

like hungry lions, void of any good.

EMMA: Good boy, in whom thy father's feature lives, ...

though death hath seized him in his wasteful arms.

If I could moderate my grieved mind

without remembrance whatere now I was,

then should my grief diminish with my tears;

but memory, the afflicter of the soul,

bids me remember how I was a Queen,

how Ethelredus was my lawful lord,

how Normand's Duke was my renowned sire,

how England was my pleasure's paradise,

and how time was when time did wait on me. ...

All these are but bellows to the fire

to burn my heart, consumed afore with sighths.

Alfred, Ned, is a child: thou art of age

to take example by my misery

not to believe foul fortune's flattery.

EDWARD: Good mother, weep not; if ye do, I'll cry.

EMMA: Ah, my pretty heart,

hast thou a feeling of my passion?

Then I will weep the more to ease my heart;

I'll mourn for thee, for him, and for myself, ...

for England and for Edmund Ironside,

whose part God prosper, heaven defend the right.

GUNTHRANUS: Madam, your helpless tears are but a means

to draw more tears from us to drown our hearts.

EMMA: Why, man, I weep to ease and not to load.

I trow the more I shed, the less I have;

and as my tears waste, so my cares consume.

To dam my eyes were but to drown my heart

like Hecuba, the woeful Queen of Troy,

who having no avoidance for her grief, ...

ran mad for sorrow 'cause she could not weep;

but, good Gunthranus, to omit vain talk,

since I have heretofore approved thy faith,

I make a choice of thee amongst the rest

of many friends to guide my little boys

and to conduct them into Normandy.

Entreat my brother for to entreat them well;

they are his nephews and his sister's joy.

If anything amiss should light on them,

the same on me should be redoubled. ...

GUNTHRANUS: Madam, even by the living God I vow

I will attend and watch them as my soul,

knowing Duke Richard will accompt of them

as nigh of blood unto his royal self.

EMMA: Then farewell, boys, the comfort of my life.

[They offer to depart.]

Yet come again, ye shall not so depart.

If that we die, we'll choose to die together:

dying or living, we will be together.

Fond woman, bless them and then let them go;

that is the safest way to keep them safe: ...

then farewell again. God bless you both. [They offer to depart.]

But soft awhile, I have not said my mind.

First let me wash your face in mother's tears,

then sob out sighths to overload the earth

and cast a misty fog upon the air, [She embraceth them.]

that no inquiring foe may find you out.

Oh let your sanctuary be my lap,

[She sits down, setting Edward on her knee and Alfred on her arm]

your refuge, your sepulchers and your graves.

A cradle fits you better than a ship.

GUNTHRANUS: See, see Dame Nature's operation, ...

what force it breeds within a mother's mind.

None feels a mother's sorrow but a mother.

This Queen hath not her peer upon the earth

for wisdom, suffering, and for patience,

for cloaking sorrow and dissembling grief

and bearing all things with a constant mind;

yet can she not conceal affection so,

but that it breaketh forth like hidden fire. [Emma riseth.]

EMMA: Fie, fie, hide Nature's fond indulgency.

Depart, sweet boys. God keep you in your way. [They offer to depart.]

Come hither, Alfred. Ned, I prithee, stay. ...

I will go with you to the foaming haven

and take my farewell of my darlings there. [Exeunt omnes.]

Scene IV.3

[Enter Canutus with a letter in his hand, with him Uskataulf,

Swetho, Southampton, Archbishop of Canterbury, Egina, with soldiers.]

CANUTUS: Courage, brave captains, conquest is at hand.

This letter comes from trusty Edricus

and certifies me that he